Game of Thrones Returns with More Revenge, More Awesome Ladies, and Ed Sheeran

If there’s anything we learned from Game of Thrones tonight, it’s do not mess with Arya Stark.

We knew this already, of course, but as tonight’s premiere opened, she continued her revenge on the Freys with a scene possibly even more epic than when she served Walder pies made of his sons and then slit his throat. She disguised herself as Walder and held a feast for all his men, during which she poisoned them all and reminded them that “the North remembers.”

She then headed off towards King’s Landing, and on the way she met Ed Sheeran. That sounds like a nickname we’d give to a random redhead, but it was actually Ed Sheeran, singing a little song with a group of soldiers. They offered Arya some food and wine, and laughed at her as she declared she was on her way to kill the queen, which was probably a big mistake on their part.

Helen Sloan/Courtesy of HBO

Tonight’s episode was really all about the ladies and their various states of power. Sansa started fighting back against Jon’s naive decisions, and Cersei took to the throne exactly as you’d expect her to. Even Lyanna Mormont got a brilliant moment to shine when she announced her intentions to fight for the North, no matter how small or how much of a girl she may be.

After so many seasons of watching women’s plotlines involve rape, torture, murder, or forced marriage, we’d be thrilled to see the final two seasons continue on this new path.

Helen Sloan/Courtesy of HBO

At Winterfell, Jon and company did some strategizing, but not everybody was seeing eye to eye. Jon didn’t want to take homes away from families, even if those families weren’t on their side, but Sansa believed they needed those fortresses, and the families living in them had committed treason. Sansa was also sure that they needed to be more concerned about Cersei than the white walkers, but Jon’s (probably mistakenly) not interested in whatever she’s up to.

Jon declared that whatever he says goes, and Sansa was left yet again with Littlefinger in her ear. She rejected his offers to help, saying that Brienne (who had arrived at Winterfell with Podrick) would protect her.

Cersei may be Queen, but she’s not sitting happily on the throne. She knows that Daenerys is coming from one direction, Jon Snow’s been named King in the North, and somebody just murdered all the Freys, and any enemy of the Freys is an enemy of the Lannisters. Jaime started to wonder what it’s all for, since all their children are dead, but Cersei’s envisioning a dynasty just for the two of them.

Euron Greyjoy arrived at King’s Landing to propose that he and Cersei get married and form an alliance, but Cersei kindly rejected him, so he decided he’d just come back later with a priceless gift.

At the Citadel, Sam was doing menial labor, emptying and scrubbing chamber pots for the maesters and serving them food while desperately trying to get into the restricted area of the library so he could read about white walkers. He was told that this new apocalypse didn’t matter, just like every other apocalypse people had ever thought was happening. The world would go on, whatever.

Eventually he got himself into the restricted section and learned that underneath Dragonstone, there’s a whole mountain of dragonglass, which is exactly the weapon needed to kill the white walkers. Sam also talked to a mysterious prisoner at the citadel, who very creepily asked if Dany had arrived yet, which she had not…yet.

Helen Sloan/Courtesy of HBO

Finally, Dany’s home! In the episode’s closing moments, she and her massive army arrived at Dragonstone, which looked a lot more incredible than we remember it looking. After walking around silently, Dany uttered her first and only words in the episode: “Shall we begin?”

Plus:

The Hound and the Brotherhood decided to camp at the same farm where the Hound and Arya once left a farmer and his daughter to die. The Hound found the bodies, buried them, started pondering god. He also made fun of a guy for disguising baldness with a “topknot” and it was the funniest thing that has maybe ever happened on this show.

Bran and Meera made it to the Wall! It took a bit of convincing to let them in, and of course his family’s no longer there, but yay for no more trudging through the snow!

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